GoGet launches Melbourne’s first-ever fully electric vehicle for a car share fleet

Melbourne, Australia, 6 December 2011 – GoGet, Australia’s first and largest professional car sharing service, launched Victoria’s first-ever 100 per cent electric vehicle into a car sharing fleet today. Bruce Jeffreys, co-founder and director of GoGet, and Anthony Helou, a Moreland ward councillor, presided over the event, held at The Nicholson, a new award-winning apartment complex in Coburg.

“There are so many reasons we’re happy about this,” Jeffreys said. “The most obvious is that having an electric vehicle (EV) in a car share fleet will give Melburnians a chance to actually try out an EV. This is really important, because for most of us, EVs are still concepts, not real cars. Well, here’s a real electric car. We want people to unplug it and give it a spin.”

The launch is the outcome of a collaboration between GoGet and a number of important community and governmental organisations including the Department of Transport in partnership with the Moreland City Council, ChargePoint Australia, Places Victoria (formerly, VicUrban), Origin and Urban Communities Limited.

Jeffreys said that GoGet was grateful to be working with these groups and the collaboration highlighted how the community can rally to improve urban life, since each party brought different strengths to the table.

The electric vehicle, a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, will be kept at The Nicholson in a designated bay called a pod. Jeffreys said the vehicle will not only give the residents of the complex and Melbourne’s local GoGet members the opportunity to experience EV driving, but as part of the Victorian Government’s Electric Vehicle Trial, the car will be contributing data to ongoing electric vehicle research.

In addition, Jeffreys said, The Nicholson was built with sustainability in mind. The complex is 6-Star energy rating designed, and –in keeping with state and federal mandates– allocates a certain number of parking spaces to car sharing. The Nicholson was built under the auspices of Places Victoria (formerly VicUrban) and is managed by Urban Communities.

“We’re really proud to be doing this because it shows that car sharing is now being recognised as part of what it means to live in an Australian city today. Don’t get me wrong, GoGet still needs to work hard to get the car sharing message out there, but I think we’ve passed the point where car share is seen as a solution just for a relatively small portion of Australians. It’s not niche. Car share can work for almost everybody.”

The i-MiEV is being recharged through the network-enabled ChargePoint station installed in the building. The ChargePoint station allows GoGet to monitor the vehicle’s energy usage and for Origin to provide 100 per cent GreenPower. As with all GoGet vehicles, fuel, whether petrol or electric, is free of charge for members who can: book vehicles for as little as an hour; book online; access the vehicles through swipe cards; and are billed monthly for their use.

“EV is an ideal fit for the urban environment because 97 per cent of trips people take are less than 50km,” Jeffreys said. “Electric vehicles are definitely important, but we see it as part of the overall move toward people recognising that there are new and better of ways of using vehicles –and it can be fun.”

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About GoGet GoGet is Australia's first and largest professional car sharing service and operates in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Its slogan is Like owning a car, only better! GoGet's aim is to provide a reliable, convenient and affordable transport service that: • allows people to live without car ownership • removes private cars from local streets • makes car sharing an integral and fun part of living in urban environments • means members don’t need to pay for fuel • decreases car usage • improves local air quality GoGet is operated by CarShare Australia, formed to bring car sharing services to Australia. Founded by Directors Nic Lowe and Bruce Jeffreys in 2003 with three vehicles and twelve members, today GoGet has over 600 cars and over fifteen thousand members.

Learn more at: www.goget.com.au

Media contact: Jonathan Englert Watterson Marketing Communications (02) 9929 7533 (04) 12 150 040 Jonathan.englert@watterson.com.au